_Trekkies_ (PG) ** 1/2 (out of ****)
The most indelible image of the news coverage of the hoopla surrounding _The_Phantom_Menace_'s opening was not the many people in line dressed up as Darth Maul, but people out of line dressed up as characters from that _other_ long-running sci-fi series, in particular one woman: leading a protest of all the media attention lavished upon _Star_Wars_ while dressed up as Borg, she held a Yoda doll in a noose, dropped it onto the ground, and then proceeded to stomp on it furiously.
Sadly, such (for lack of a better term) "deviant" behavior is not chronicled in _Trekkies_, a documentary about _Star_Trek_'s fervent fans, but there are plenty of extremes on display. Witness the Whitewater juror who insisted upon wearing her Starfleet uniform to court and only likes being addressed as "Commander." Marvel at the dentist who turned his office into a pretty neat microcosm of the _Trek_ universe. Listen in astonishment as one fan, who already dresses his poodle in Starfleet clothes, contemplates having his ears surgically altered to resemble a Vulcan's. Laugh hysterically at the infamous "Q Virus" story and one fan who drives around in a working replica of an unusual transport vehicle featured in the TV series.
All of this holds a strange fascination, but as one can glean from the above paragraph, it does get somewhat redundant after a while. Not to mention grating at times--the fan who gets the most screen time, 14-year-old Gabriel Koerner, is so smugly pretentious one wishes he would end up on the wrong end of a phaser. _Next_Generation_ star Denise Crosby, who also produced, makes an engaging tour guide to all the madness, but the film loses steam halfway into its slim 86-minute running time.
Michael Dequina
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